Sabres Heading Home From Four Nations

The three Buffalo Sabres players who participated in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and Boston are headed back to Buffalo, as Sabres team captain Rasmus Dahlin’s Team Sweden and Henri Jokiharju and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s Team Finland were both eliminated in the final day of the three-game round robin on Monday.

Both Dahlin and Jokiharju scored goals for their respective countries, while Luukkonen never got on the ice, as Kevin Lankinen and Juuse Saros dressed for all three games in the tournament.

"(It's been an) awesome tournament." Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. "Somebody asked me what my thoughts were and what it was going to be like. And I said I wanted to see what the compete was like and I think that (the game between Canada and the US) answered the question."

The Sabres took to the ice for the first time in 10 days on Tuesday and practiced for over an hour at Key Bank Center without their three teammates. The club is scheduled to work out every day leading up to their return on Saturday against the NY Rangers, with Dahlin, Jokiharju, and Luukkonen not expected to participate until Thursday.

Ruff indicated that defenseman Mattias Samuelsson and forward Jordan Greenway are on track to return on Saturday from the injured list, and that he is looking for his club to maintain the blistering pace set in the final five games before the break in the final 28 games of the season.

"We discussed that this morning (to) really try to turn this into our playoffs right now, where (we) break it down into every five games, get a minimum of seven points every five games," Ruff said. "(That) would put us at 84 (points) with three games left. (We) win those three games gets you to 90. I know it's a hard difficult task, but I think you have to set goals."